Impeachment is Warranted but What’s the Rush?

Elizabeth Warren has called for an impeachment of president Trump to begin immediately.  I think that idea, while seeming bold and momentarily separating her from the herd of other Dem candidates (about 20 now), is dumb.  Just like her push to disband ICE is dumb.   (Some government organization will be needed to deal with those issues, so what you are really calling for is a smarter, more moral and more gentle ICE, while giving Trump fuel for his lies about you wanting an open border).

That’s two strikes against you Elizabeth and the campaign has barely begun (I’m giving you a pass on the Native American fiasco).  How about just getting into office and reform what we already have?

This past weekend a number of arguments and innuendos on liberal political cable have basically called out Democrat House leadership for a lack of “intestinal fortitude” to fight for basic principles.   (Nancy Pelosi lacking intestinal fortitude?  Are you kidding me?)

In an editorial in the New York Times, Charles Blow makes his case for impeachment including this sentence  …….“once a president is impeached, he is forever marked. It is a chastisement unto itself. It is the People’s House making a stand for its people.”

First, the Mueller report is enough to forever mark Trump.   The issue is to get enough people to understand it and believe it.  Second, the people’s House is really just a Democrat people’s house at the moment.  The Republicans have no say.  So, let’s understand the statement made is from just Democrats, not wholly the “people.”  I don’t think the Democrats thought of it as the people’s House when Republicans were in control.

Hey, thank God the Dems won the House, without which we would really be in deep doo-doo as a nation, left with almost no power to thwart our Narcissist-in-chief, but I don’t care for all this principled posing.   Especially when acting on principles pushes us to do something really dumb.

Warren asserts this issue is a matter of principles above politics.   Not really.  As indicated in the previous paragraph, the issue is fully enmeshed in politics and because the Trumpubicans rule the Senate we all know how this story will end and I think it will end badly for Democrats.  Trump is too good at setting the story line and when the Senate fails to convict, Trump will convincingly add “no conviction”, to the other two mantras.

As for impeachment, as you might guess I am fully supportive of Nancy Pelosi’s “one step at a time” approach.   More Americans must first come to believe the Mueller report and it will take time and education for them to do so.  It will take time because at the moment Trump seems to be winning the narrative game.   “No Collusion”, “No Obstruction” is a more powerful message than “here’s a four hundred page tell-all you all must read to believe.”  Yeah, let me check my text messages and emails, respond to some of them and play my favorite on-line game first.  Maybe I’ll have some time for that report tomorrow.

Let’s keep working the various angles to educate Americans as to what the Mueller report really says, which might take a lot of work since so many have been turned off by these endless investigations.  People believe they have heard it all before, because they have heard most of it.

Also, Trump is a master at making the truth murky, so we have to make the obvious clear.  Yes Trump’s actions warrant impeachment, but we can only charge him now (in the House) and must wait for sufficient change in public opinion to make the process worthwhile.  In the mean time let Congressional committees call in Mueller and other key figures mentioned in the report for public hearings.  Let’s see what that brings.  And let’s see how some 14 other investigations go.

There’s no rush.